The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 starsWorlds within worlds within worlds
This is not quite the inoculate inception you would expect but it holds your attention. This is an action packed thriller with plenty of CGI, blood and guts and a mystery to boot.

We already know the formula and this will not be the last movie to use it. Yet it is the execution that is on trial here. Is lots of action and noise the reason to watch the movie or...

3.0 out of 5 starsWhile this film had its moments - as lucid dreaming ...
While this film had its moments - as lucid dreaming involved, how could it not? - for my taste far too much rushing about and violence. Presumably this is what the market demands.

This is not quite the inoculate inception you would expect but it holds your attention. This is an action packed thriller with plenty of CGI, blood and guts and a mystery to boot.

We already know the formula and this will not be the last movie to use it. Yet it is the execution that is on trial here. Is lots of action and noise the reason to watch the movie or is it actually the distraction. Take away the CGI and the obligatory car chase and what is left?

Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) just wants to get on with life and be with his kids once more. He is offered that opportunity in exchange for his skill in changing people's minds while entering their dreams. This is the simple explanation for the movie. But Cob and his team must go down several levels of dreams in dreams in dreams to accomplish the mission. With each level new problems are revealed as we are also dissecting Cobb's mind at the same time.

Will the team complete their mission or like "The Man from the MTA?" be lost forever in limbo.

This was the first movie I saw in theatres twice since Nolan's previous film, The Dark Knight. The man certainly knows how to make a movie and is undoubtedly the hot director of the moment. It's refreshing to see a movie that at least tries to be original and creative, however I have a feeling that Nolan could be more if he had less pressure to dominate the box office with everything he makes. There are times in this movie where the content descends into regular action movie stuff, but for the most part it avoids such pitfalls. I still say The Prestige is the best of his movies, but this is certainly worth watching and perhaps buying.

I just watched the movie and it blew me away! The story is just great. From the beginning to the end, there is no slowdown as we often see in movies. At the same time, it is not an action packed movie without a good story. It is the kind of movie that you can predict the ending, but that you have to watch to let the producer and actors blow you away.

I read the other reviews and I give it a 5 star because I don't care much about the packaging as long as everything is in there. What matters is the movie. The story, the production and the actors are just amazing.

Christopher Nolan may be the most brilliant, unconventional mainstream director working in Hollywood today, crafting intricate stories where narrative forms are stretched and twisted.

Nowhere is this more obvious than "Inception," which turns into a multi-level Möbius strip -- worlds within worlds, dreams within dreams. Nolan delights in being able to conjure strange worlds that could never exist in real life, but he crafts a very heartfelt, powerful story for those visuals -- a story of love and loss, ambition and power, and a broken man haunted by guilt that constantly chases him through every dream.

In the not-too-distant future (next Sunday A.D.), the military has created a technology that allows artificial shared dreaming. Within multi-leveled dreams, architects can create elaborate worlds, and special "extractors" can get information from a sleeping subject's brain. Oh, and there are several layers of dreaming, each with a different period of time passing.

The movie opens with Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to extract some information from tycoon Saito (Ken Watanabe). It turns out that this was actually an elaborate audition by Saito, who wants to hire them for an "inception" -- to plant a new idea in someone's head. Cobb isn't interested until Saito offers to clear him of the murder of his wife, which would allow him to return to his young children.

Their target: Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who has just inherited a massive energy conglomerate from his cold, callous father. Saito wants the company dissolved before it can become too powerful, so he wants the idea incepted into Robert's head.

So Cobb gets together a gang of the best: clever forger Eames (Tom Hardy), dream-chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and the new architect Ariadne (Ellen Page). But only Ariadne sees how troubled Cobb is, and that the memory of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) is deliberately sabotaging every mission he undertakes. As the team weaves their elaborate web of deception and dreams around Robert, Cobb finds that his demons are threatening their mission.

You have to give it to Christopher Nolan: he doesn't dumb down his movies for the masses. "Inception" is a hard movie to even summarize because it's constantly growing more complicated -- the team is spread out over different dream levels, with different time periods passing and different perils attacking them simultaneously. It's half heist caper and half sci-fi meta-thriller... if that even makes sense.

And while Nolan sculpts a strange Escheresque dream-world of labyrinths and never-ending stairs, he also crafts some powerful subplots about love and loss. As the plot unwinds, he intertwines Cobb and Fischer's personal issues with the main story of inception. Suddenly the constant firefights, explosions and free-falling elevators/vans aren't the only reason we're invested -- the audience is truly left wanting to see both men work out their issues and find some measure of inner peace.

It also has spectacularly good special effects, particularly Arthur's battle in the hotel -- he scampers across the walls and ceilings, grappling with projections as he floats through empty halls. Not to mention the scene where Ariadne turns a whole city upside-down... literally.

Honestly, the biggest problem with the movie is that the dreams sometimes make too much sense. Why do Fischer's projections have to actually TRAVEL to attack the team instead of... I don't know, materializing inside the building?

Nolan also populates "Inception" with a lot of actors that he's cast in other projects, especially "The Dark Knight Rises." In fact, I can't help but wonder if DiCaprio's role was originally offered to Christian Bale, because we've also got Cotillard, Hardy, Watanabe, Murphy, Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine. There are actually only a couple major actors who haven't worked with Nolan elsewhere.

But this is one of DiCaprio's best roles, even if he's not very convincing as a father -- his Cobb is riddled with guilt and numb sorrow, and it's only prodding from Ariadne that finally gets him to confront his issues. All the other actors give lovely performances as well -- Cotillard is particularly wrenching as a strange shallow shade of a madwoman, as is Murphy as the downtrodden son of a powerful man.

"Inception" is the kind of movie that we desperately need more of -- a wild Möbius strip of complex ideas, brilliant direction and powerful acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind film, and not one to be missed.

This film requires you to be there at the beginning (really near the end) and to stay awake all the way through. The twists and turns of the rapidly paced plot will be hard enough to follow while awake. You sleep, you lose.

In fact, that is the basis for the plot of the movie. While you sleep, you dream, and these dreams can be exploited with the right technology and talent. Leonardo di Caprio plays a master extractor whose talent is to enter dreams in a sort of industrial espionage, to ferret out secret knowledge that can be sold. In the movie, however, his most challenging test ever is the converse, the planting of an idea into the dream of a multibillionaire, that might change the course of the world.

Dreams within dreams within dreams. The film works on any number of levels. The characters are well fleshed out, with di Caprio and Ken Watanabe especially good. The supporting cast is fully up to the job. The plotting is quick and violent. The pacing is classic, with multiple minor climaxes ending with a major preshadowed explosion. The ghostly wife who becomes all too real in dreams complicates a near perfect plan, and threatens seriously to destroy everyone. There is action and suspense enough to make this an enjoyable action movie, while the characters turn it into an excellent drama. And the whole concept, echoing to some extent The Matrix movies, turns it into thoughtful science fiction.

An all-around good movie, whether you like action, suspense, character drama, or science fiction.

Christopher Nolan's Inception was a summer blockbuster in 2010. In USA alone, the movie made $292 million. It was even more phenomenal at the Worldwide Box Office, with the box receipt at $816 millions, right behind Toy Story 3 (1,066 billion) and Alice In Wonderland (1,023 billion).

Inception debuts on Blu-ray with a gorgeous 1080p/VC-1 encode (2.40:1) that makes the fantasy aspects mesmerizing. The picture comes with an amazing array of bold and vibrant colors. The transfer shows a highly detailed picture with incredible, clearly outlined objects in the foreground and background from beginning to end with tremendous details. Wally Pfister's elegant photography displayed a beautiful and warm palette. (5/5)

Audio: The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is nothing short of exceptional. Dialogue was clean and sharp. Hans Zimmer music has a wide enveloping influence, that makes you feel that you are actually in the mid of the action. The bass was very powerful. A demo-worthy presentation (5/5)

Now, the bad point: The subtitles are placed OUTSIDE the picture frame. For those with anamorphic lens, with the stretched picture, half of the subtitles will not be seen. Warner Brothers, how many times do viewers have to write to you to change your ways? In this case, if you want the subtitles to be seen, one cannot stretch the picture. Thus the impact of 2.40:1 bigger picture is lost.

Inception is a complex movie that requires repeat viewings to truly appreciate all the details of the various plots. It was totally enjoyable for the entire 148 minutes. Notice, for once, that there was no plot summary that was usually written on the back cover of the dvd case. This Blu-ray does the movie's imaginative spectacle justice with an absolutely gorgeous video presentation. The high-resolution audio is pure reference quality. With such top-notch video and audio, plus a complexed plot, it will be a pleasure to watch it again and again. Highly recommended and a Must-Own.

I received my copy today, I can't review the disc itself but the film was incredible and I'm a huge Christopher Nolan fan (I'm the type of nerd that, when I heard Leo was playing a character named "Cobb", said "Huh, a thief named Cobb, that's a cool nod to 'Following', Nolan's first feature"), so I'm looking forward to watching it again once I have 2 and a half hours free to do so.

Anyway, the reason for this review: I'd read Websurfer's review, and when I received my copy I noticed there was nothing on the case that said it contained the DVD or Digital Copy voucher, which the picture here displays. I've seen other cases that had everything that advertised as such ("The Fantastic Mr. Fox" has it clearly written on the case that it contains all three formats). So, I was about ready to look up the return process, when I decided "well, I can't know for sure until I open it"... and there they were, the BluRay, the Extras (also on BluRay), and the DVD, with a voucher for the Digital Copy. It's all there. It's strange that the physical case has absolutely no markings, front or back, that would indicate it has them all, since that's a great selling feature for people who don't quite have a BluRay player yet, but figure they'll get one soon (I had considered buying Inception sooner, before I bought my PS3, because I'd seen the combo pack here). Had I seen this displayed at a brick and mortar, I would have passed. So, don't worry if your case doesn't look like the one pictured here. Crack it open anyway... it's all there.

A movie built like a labyrinth, complete with a menacing minotauric presence and a guiding Ariadne; worlds within worlds and dreams reflected onto dreams like an infinity mirror effect.

Nolan takes the viewer deep, deeper than any other filmmaker in memory, and without holding your hand all the way he never lets you get lost. His vision has years compressed into hours, Paris folding onto itself, militarized minds and entire worlds built out of a single person's imagination. Yet in the end, his logic is solid and his story scintillatingly brilliant.

This is bioSciFi, cyberpunk and action movie all rolled into a complex story in the near future, where not even our dreams will be safe and sharing our subconscious fears and fixations will only be an induced REM cycle away.

The movie has been reviewed by greater experts than I am. Let me just say that it is great entertainment. An action flick with imaginative use of special effects, not just for the eye candy, but to make us believe in the possibility of a world that might be created in our unconscious. It is science-fiction and yet it is not, because much of what Nolan approximated is conceivably close enough to the actual workings of the mind. My main critique about the film is that I believe that the secondary characters are more interesting than the main character, and they are not developed in the movie, so I wanted more.

Now onto the DVD edition. It is the obvious set up where they get the DVD out before Christmas with almost no extra content (a featurette and a look at how some of the scenes were made), and I'm sure later on there will be a special edition coming out with a ton of better content. I just wish the content included with this DVD were a little more... substantial. There's just not much to them, it felt like I saw them all in about 5-10 minutes. They could have been a little more generous.